Assessing the reaction of trade unions to innovation, this revisionist study asserts that unions do not, in fact, obstruct change as often as is commonly assumed. In a detailed analysis of industrial innovations and labor relations, Willman examines three major industries that have experienced abnormal problems in both the U.S. and Great Britain: the port, newspaper, and automotive industries. The explanation for this pattern isolates the close relationship--in the U. S. and Great Britain--between technological and organized change.

Workers, Managers, and Technological Change: Emerging Patterns of Labor Relations contributes significantly to an important subject. Technological change is one of the most powerful forces transforming the American industrial relations In fact, the synergistic relationships between technology and indus system. trial relations are so complex that they are not well or completely understood. We know that the impact of technology, while not independent of social forces, already has been profound: it has transformed occupations, creating new skills and destroying others; altered the power relationships between workers and managers; and changed the way workers learn and work. Tech nology also has made it possible to decentralize some economic activities out of large metropolitan areas and into small towns, rural areas, and other coun tries. Most important, information technology makes it possible for interna tional corporations to operate on a global basis. Indeed, some international corporations, especially those based in the United States, are losing their national identities, detaching the welfare of corporations from that of particu lar workers and communities. Internationalization, facilitated by information technology, has trans formed industrial relations systems. A major objective of the traditional American industrial relations system was to take labor out of competition.

Collective bargaining and workers’ voice are often discussed in the past rather than in the future tense, but can they play a role in the context of a rapidly changing world of work? This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the functioning of collective bargaining systems and workers’ voice arrangements across OECD countries, and new insights on their effect on labour market performance today.

Cover page -- Halftitle page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ABBREVIATIONS -- INTRODUCTION BETWEEN EROSION AND TRANSFORMATION: INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS SYSTEMS UNDER THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE -- Part One TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND LABOUR RELATIONS -- Chapter One TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION, ORGANISATION OF WORK, AND UNIONS -- Chapter Two CHANGING SKILL REQUIREMENTS AND TRADE UNION BARGAINING -- Chapter Three TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE, LABOUR MARKET, AND TRADE UNION POLICY -- Part Two THE POLITICS OF RATIONALISATION: THE CAR INDUSTRY -- Chapter Four RATIONALISATION AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: A CASE STUDY OF VOLKSWAGEN -- Chapter Five THE POLITICS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AT BRITISH LEYLAND -- Chapter Six CHANGES OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AT FIAT -- Part Three CRISIS AND RATIONALISATION: IMPACT ON UNIONS -- Chapter Seven BUREAUCRACY, OLIGARCHY, AND INCORPORATION IN SHOP STEWARD ORGANISATIONS IN THE 1980s -- Chapter Eight SHOP STEWARDS AND MANAGEMENT: COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AS CO-OPERATION -- Chapter Nine SOME CURRENT STRATEGY PROBLEMS OF THE ITALIAN TRADE UNIONS* -- Chapter Ten CENTRALISATION OR DECENTRALISATION? AN ANALYSIS OF ORGANISATIONAL CHANGES IN THE ITALIAN TRADE UNION MOVEMENT AT A TIME OF CRISIS -- Chapter Eleven SOCIAL CHANGE AND TRADE UNION MOVEMENT IN THE 1970s -- Chapter Twelve LABOUR CONFLICTS AND CLASS STRUGGLES -- Chapter Thirteen WORKERS' REACTIONS TO CRISIS -- NOTES ON EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS -- TRANSLATORS -- INDEX

Monograph on the nature and machinery of productivity-based collective bargaining in the UK, with particular reference to the implications thereof for labour relations - includes theoretical aspects and trends, and covers management problems, wage policy, income distribution, employment security, workers participation, etc. References.